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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 15, 1998, 18(18):7381-7393

Sensory Processing in the Pallium of a Mormyrid Fish

James C. Prechtl¹, Gerhard von der Emde², Jakob Wolfart¹, Saçit Karamürsel³, George N. Akoev⁴, Yuri N. Andrianov⁴, and Theodore H. Bullock¹

¹ Neurobiology Unit, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, ² Zoologisches Institut, Universität Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany, ³ Center for Electroneurophysiology, Istanbul University School of Medicine, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey, and ⁴ Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia

To investigate the functional organization of higher brain levels in fish we test the hypothesis that the dorsal gray mantle of the telencephalon of a mormyrid fish has discrete receptive areas for several sensory modalities. Multiunit and compound field potentials evoked by auditory, visual, electrosensory, and water displacement stimuli in this weakly electric fish are recorded with multiple semimicroelectrodes placed in many tracks and depths in or near telencephalic area dorsalis pars medialis (Dm).

Most responsive loci are unimodal; some respond to two or more modalities. Each modality dominates a circumscribed area, chiefly separate. Auditory and electrical responses cluster in the dorsal 500 µm of rostral and caudolateral Dm, respectively. Two auditory subdivisions underline specialization of this sense. Mechanoreception occupies a caudal area overlapping electroreception but centered 500 µm deeper. Visual responses scatter widely through ventral areas.

Auditory, electrosensory, and mechanosensory responses are dominated by a negative wave within the first 50 msec, followed by 15-55 Hz oscillations and a slow positive wave with multiunit spikes lasting from 200 to 500 msec. Stimuli can induce shifts in coherence of certain frequency bands between neighboring loci. Every electric organ discharge command is followed within 3 msec by a large, mainly negative but generally biphasic, widespread corollary discharge. At certain loci large, slow ("F") waves usually precede transient shifts in electric organ discharge rate. Sensory-evoked potentials in this fish pallium may be more segregated than in elasmobranchs and anurans and have some surprising similarities to those in mammals.

Key words: cerebral cortex; corollary discharge; induced rhythms; evoked potential; gamma band; lateral line; mormyrid

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Copyright © 1998 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/98/18187381-13$05.00/0

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